The present invention relates to a tape attaching device used in attaching a tape to a car door sash, instead of painting.
Representative prior arts related to an attaching device devised to attach a tape to a car door sash include the Korean Patents No. 98-63283 and 99-64839. For these patents, a tape can be prevented from being damaged because they have flexibility enough to cope with the shape of the surface of a car door sash to which a tape will be attached. It has been pointed out, however, that they have some problems such as incapability of coping with changes in the shape of door sash portion, severe damage or wear of sash and rollers, and unsmooth sliding.
Patent No. 98-63283 states that a sliding block having pressure rollers and opposite to an end block having positioning rollers is elastically supported by a coil spring, so that the device can cope with changes in the shape of sash surface to which a tape will be attached. However, it cannot apply to the different kind of cars with a different basic shape of the sash portion, except the same kind of cars with a similar basic shape of the sash portion. For this reason a separate attaching device for a different kind of car is needed.
Further, if the elastic force of the coil spring supporting the sliding block is weak, the sliding block may be deviated from a specific position where a proper space between it and the end block is maintained. In this case, an adhesive tape may be attached to a wrong position. Too strong elastic force of the coil spring may interfere with the rotation of the rollers.
As shown in FIG. 3, the sash portion is in contact with the bottom of the pressure rollers and positioning rollers parallel to the pressure drums, and a pressure is working to bring the attaching surface into close contact with the pressure drums. If in this state the attaching device is slid straight or three-dimensionally along the sash portion, the rotary direction of the rollers and lengthwise direction of the sash portion are forced out of alignment with each other. In that case, the sash portion will be damaged, and quick wear of the rollers in contact with the sash portion will shorten its service life. In addition, space between the rollers and the pressure drums becomes wide, so that the pressure will not work properly. Accordingly air bubbles may occur when attaching a tape, and resultingly an increase in friction coefficient will lead to no smooth operation.
The device according to Patent No. 99-64839 is also designed to cope with changes in width or thickness of contact surface of the sash portion by adjusting the length of the rollers and height of the guide member facing the portion pressing a tape. Likewise, it cannot apply to the different kind of cars with a different basic shape of the sash portion, except the same kind of cars with a similar basic shape of the sash portion. For this reason a separate attaching device for a different kind of car is needed.
For the device, the attaching surface of the door sash portion is brought into contact in a state of being held between the rollers and plate pressure member. This construction will cause damage of the pressure member and the sash portion and wear of the pressure member at the time of sliding for attaching a tape. Resultingly space from the rollers becomes irregular and attaching defects will occur. In addition, an increase in friction coefficient due to sliding contact will lead to no smooth operation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tape attaching device that can cope with changes of the basic shape of a door sash portion of each kind of car through simple adjustment and achieve smooth operation without damage of a sash portion and wear of rollers during movement for attaching a tape.
Further, it is an another object of the present invention to provide a tape attaching device that can properly cope with changes of the inclination angle the body of the sash portion has from the surface to which a tape will be attached and has a pressure drums that are able to give minimum pressure required to attach a tape even though no pressure is working, so that attaching defects due to lowered pressure and occurrence of air bubble resulting therefrom can be prevented.
To achieve the above-described objects, a tape attaching device according to the present invention comprises pressure drums and guide bars fixed perpendicularly to a drum block, a drum cap for adjusting the exposed length of the pressure drums and guide bars, an inner roller block mounted adjustably to a block housing together with the drum block and having a plurality of inner rollers facing the pressure drums, an outer roller block connected to the inner roller block through a slide support so as to be slided up and down from the slide support for adjustment and having a plurality of outer rollers, and a plurality of adjusting bolts having adjusting means for adjusting space between each block, drum cap and slide support or their heights.
Basically the pressure drums have soft synthetic resin layers in their outside. However, they may be so constructed that they have magnets inside of the soft synthetic resin layer, so that magnetic force can work when they come into contact with the door sash portion. It is desirable that the outer surface of the inner rollers, which come into contact with the inclined surface of the door sash portion, will be formed in the curved shape so that they can properly cope with different inclination angles according to different kinds of car.
On the other hand, the drum block and inner roller block mounted to the block housing so as to be slided for adjustment are provided for adjustment of space between the pressure drums and inner rollers. It does not matter if any block can be slided for adjustment from the other block that is fixed.